TAMPA — Carlos Beltran admits he and the 2017 Houston Astros “crossed the line” with their sign-stealing scheme during their championship season.
In an interview released Sunday by the YES Network, Beltran addressed his role in the scandal. He will make his return from baseball exile when he starts his new job as an analyst for the network Monday at Yankees camp in Tampa.
“Looking back now, yes, we did cross the line,” Beltran said in the interview with Michael Kay, which airs Monday at noon.
And he said there is a “stain” on their title.
“Yeah, there is because, you know what we did,” Beltran said. “And we all have taken responsibility and at some point we all have shown remorse about what we did.”
Beltran admitted he was wrong to take part in the scheme.
“We all did what we did,” Beltran said. “Looking back today, we were wrong. I wish I would’ve asked more questions about what we were doing. I wish the organization would’ve said to us, ‘Hey man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this.’”
The Astros illegally used a video monitor and a garbage can to let their hitters know what pitch was coming.
They went on to win the World Series- beating the Yankees in seven games in the ALCS, a result general manager Brian Cashman said last week was illegitimate.
Beltran said the Astros’ front office never told the team to stop their activities.
“Nobody really said anything,” Beltran said. “We’re winning, you know, and some days our system really worked. Some days [it] didn’t really work…but we had a good team… We had such a good team.”
Beltran added the Astros players “felt that when teams are coming to our ballpark [Minute Maid Park], we felt that some teams have something going on. So we felt that we needed to create our own [system], you know, and that’s what happened.”
Beltran said they put their video room next to the dugout.
“We’re seeing the game…you get to see the pitchers, you get to see the catchers,” Beltran said of the system. “And then we felt that we could use that, you know, but we didn’t feel that we were really crossing the line there. We didn’t feel we were really crossing the line. We felt in our hearts that we were being more efficient and smarter than any team out there.”
As for the directive from the league late in the 2017 season to stop using technology to steal signs, which came in part because of the Apple Watch scandal involving the Yankees and Red Sox, Beltran said it wasn’t brought to the players.
“If they (the Astros front office) got the letter (from MLB), they knew, but they never shared it with us,” Beltran said. “Nobody said anything to us, you know, nobody said anything. I wish somebody would’ve said something. A lot of people always ask me why you didn’t stop it. And my answer is, ‘I didn’t stop it the same way no one stopped it.’ This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you? So, if the organization would’ve said something to us, we would’ve stopped it for sure.”
Beltran turned out to be the only player named in the league’s report following its investigation, despite players being told they would get immunity for cooperating, as Beltran did.
“The part that bothered me about that is that, you know, when I sit down to cooperate with them (MLB), they said to me, ‘We’re not going against the players. We’re going against …field personnel, front office and organization,’” Beltran said. “And the fact that I’m the only player named in that report? So how… [did] that happen? Like, that’s the part that I don’t understand. Everyone gets immunity except Carlos Beltran? I don’t get it.”
